Disgruntled Union Claims about Dougco Innovation Add Up to Politics, Not Truth
It’s Friday! Which means it must be time to provide some more clarity on the bold innovations taking place in Douglas County. Today provides a great opportunity to highlight a fairly balanced 9News story, making sure to emphasize and elaborate on some key points and add one or two others that may have been left […]
Identifying the Good Kind of Disruption in (Colorado) Blended Learning Innovation
When is it okay to be disruptive in class? Most teachers rightly would frown on the idea of little whelps like me acting out or speaking out of turn when a lecture or other class instructional activity is taking place. But disruptive innovation via the blended learning strategy is an entirely different matter. I’m talking […]
Ray of Hope for True School Finance Reform in Post-Lobato Lawsuit Landscape
Understandably, some emotions have run high in the wake of the 8-year Lobato school funding case shot down by the Colorado Supreme Court. Taxpayers can be thankful that judicial sanity prevailed and a constitutional crisis was avoided, though, as the moment finally has come to look forward. Some say we need a billion-dollar education tax increase, but given a careful look at the funding facts, it’s time instead to take on the cause of real school finance reform.
Amy Oliver Show: High Court Overturns Lobato School Funding Decision
Senior education policy analyst Ben DeGrow and University of Colorado-Colorado Springs professor Joshua Dunn break down the Colorado Supreme Court’s landmark Lobato ruling. By a 4-2 margin, the Court overturned a 2011 decision that would have cost an additional $1.35 to $4.15 billion a year to fund K-12 education.
Scholarship Tax Credits Gain in Popularity? Sounds Like a Win-Win-Win for Colorado
You may have heard old adages like “Absence makes the heart grow fonder” and “Familiarity breeds contempt.” Well, here comes the young whippersnapper again, questioning longstanding wisdom. When it comes to tax credits for private school choice, I have to say the old adages just don’t work. So the Cato Institute’s Jason Bedrick points out […]
Thousands of bridges are "fracture critical," while governments divert fuel tax revenue transit projects
Why are fuel tax revenues used for transit projects like light rail, while drivers risk their lives when crossing poorly maintained bridges
Thousands of bridges are “fracture critical,” while governments divert fuel tax revenue transit projects
Why are fuel tax revenues used for transit projects like light rail, while drivers risk their lives when crossing poorly maintained bridges
27 Ways Obamacare Increases Your Health Insurance Premium
Supporters of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act claim that it will reduce Colorado health care costs and health insurance premiums. Nonsense. Even economist Jonathan Gruber, an ObamaCare architect, estimated that it would increase premiums in Colorado’s individual market by 19 percent. Don’t be fooled when the businesses, bureaucrats, and non-profits who benefit from increasing your premiums choose to blame your higher costs on everything but the ObamaCare law.
Myth-Busting: The “Roman Condominium” Myth
Much of my scholarly research is designed to set the historical record straight—essentially myth-busting. For reasons I’ll explain another time, most legal writers are terrible historians. They tend to cherry-pick history to promote a case, and when there aren’t enough historical facts, they sometimes make them up. My efforts to correct the record are best […]
Disputed Dougco Evaluations? Don’t Turn Up the Heat, Just Share All the Facts
Update, 5/28: I took off for the long holiday weekend, and came back to learn that Our Colorado News had updated the article on the Trailblazer teacher evaluation controversy, addressing some of the shortcomings I identified. I’d like to thank them for making an effort to improve the story. If you can’t stifle dramatic local […]
DeGrow Tackles SB 213 Tax Proposal on Choice Media
Comments from senior education policy analyst were featured in the new edition of the nationally-syndicated Choice Media Ed Reform Minute. The story covers Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper’s recent signing of Senate Bill 213, the “Future School Finance Act” measure tied directly to a statewide billion-dollar tax increase proposal: In the era of the school choice […]
Passing Thoughts: Charters Well Established Part of Colorado’s Education Landscape
According to my stressed-out-looking Education Policy Center friends, we are fast approaching the 20th anniversary of Colorado officially approving charter schools as a means of public school choice. At the time, we were the third state to do so (after Minnesota and California). Today, 42 states have some form of a charter school law. As […]
